A South African man who received the world’s first penile transplant after a botched circumcision is going to become a dad.
According to Andre van der Merwe, a surgeon who performed the nine-hour operation at Tygerberg Hospital last year, the 21-year-old man’s girlfriend is about four months pregnant, which shows that the “transplant worked”.
Dr Van der Merwe was reportedly pleased to hear the news and has not asked for a paternity test as there was no reason not to believe the couple. He told the BBC, “This is what we intended, that he should be able to stand up and be able to urinate and have intercourse, so it is a milestone for him.”
He added that he didn’t expect the man to be infertile, as he had an issue with his penis, not his testicles. Once they have reviewed the success of the operation, the surgical team may apparently carry out further transplants.
Not everyone is quite so excited about the news, however. Urologist Benjamin Davies wrote in Forbes that the surgery isn’t “breakthrough”, as a similar type of procedure – sewing very small nerves and vessels – is “done every day, in every hospital in the US (think vasectomy reversal)”.
He also pointed out that a group of Chinese urologists carried out the exact procedure in 2006, but added that unfortunately “the gentlemen removed the transplanted penis himself 14 days later”.
Talk about putting a downer on things…
